Final project


This is a close to last minute pivot due to issues with my original project ( the short film) however, this photo book still connected and draw inspiration deeply from Roland Barthes’ Image-Music-Text, especially his concept of the “punctum”, that small, striking detail in an image that pierces through surface meaning and evokes something deeply personal. By capturing human emotions in black and white, the work moves beyond straightforward representation and instead invites a more intimate, introspective response from the viewer. Each portrait refuses a single interpretation, reflecting Barthes’ idea of the “text” as something open, layered, and re-readable. Without the distraction of color, the images lean into light, shadow, and gesture to create a kind of visual music, a quiet language that speaks directly to feeling. The project also echoes the lyric “the darkness keeps you shining” from The Weeknd’s I Can't Wait To Get There. In this context, darkness is not emptiness but the very condition through which emotion becomes visible. It is in the absence, in the grayscale and the stillness, that something raw and luminous emerges. “Shining” doesn’t just mean glowing with light. It suggests a sharpened vision, a deeper kind of seeing, almost like the unsettling clarity in The Shining. These portraits don’t hide in the dark. They come alive in it. And by doing so, they make visible what is often left unspoken.

The photo book becomes a Text in the way Barthes describes by refusing to settle into a single meaning. Each black-and-white portrait speaks softly but powerfully, allowing space for the viewer to project their own memories, feelings, and interpretations. The images don’t explain themselves. Instead, they leave room for emotional discovery. The "punctum", that quiet detail that stings or lingers, pulls the viewer in and unsettles easy understanding. Rather than following a clear storyline, the book unfolds more like a feeling than a narrative. Its openness, its silence, its rawness all work together to create something alive. Meaning isn’t handed to you. It’s something you feel your way into.


Blurb




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